The present invention relates generally to a guide rail installation for a sliding door of an automotive vehicle. More specifically, the invention relates to a structure for installing a sliding door guide rail onto a vehicle framework, such as side sill, roof side frame and so forth.
Various constructions of vehicles with sliding doors are known. In general, the sliding door has a slider or roller slidingly engageable with a guide rail installed on the roof side frame, the side sill and so forth for sliding movement. In case of a lower rail engageable with a lower slider or roller of the sliding door, the guide rail is conventionally mounted on the side sill upper panel. Above the side sill upper panel, a step plate is provided in a vertically spaced relationship with respect to the side sill upper panel for defining a space to receive the guide rail. In such conventional construction, a floor panel for constituting the floor of the vehicle compartment is necessarily located above the step plate with a certain vertical space therebetween. This results in relatively high elevation of the vehicle floor. Such a relatively high floor elevation reduces the riding space available for the passengers and also decreases the size of the door opening for the passengers to get in and out of the vehicle.
In view of these drawbacks in the prior art, it would be desirable to provide a sliding door guide rail installation structure which allows the vehicle floor panel to be placed at a relatively low elevation thereby permitting lowering of the vehicle floor.